User Stories
Personas
Interaction Model
Solution Sketches
Wearable Mid-Fi Prototype
This project investigates the nature of knee health for skiing enthusiasts and the opportunity that an intelligent embodied knee brace system may provide to reduce injury and improve comfort for the user. The most common injuries on ski-slopes are knee-related. Regardless of skill-level, knee injuries occur due to the unusual twisting, torque, and exponential weight the body endures. I established this scope because I spent the last twenty years with moderate to severe knee pain. My research included, but was not limited to, ski injuries, knee injuries, injury-rehabilitation, reasons for knee discomfort, medical devices for improved health and comfort, intelligent textiles, and orientation sensors with accelerometers.
The final design is an intelligent hybrid of a knee sleeve and tri-compartment offloading knee braces(inspired by E-Knee and Spring Loaded technologies) with adjustable stabilizers and liquid spring support. Adjustable fluid filled bags allow for automatic fittings for novice users yet is highly customizable for each unique user experience. Once in motion, the user can use a thumbstick attached to their ski-pole to make realtime adjustments to their brace to improve comfort and modify the support systems. Haptic responses in the brace and thumbstick give feedback to the user. When granted permissions, medical professionals can observe the collected data from the intelligent sleave and adjust the brace or user’s rehabilitation.
Personas were created to empathize user experiences. Additional research and analysis from a physical therapist and a retired professional skier provided feedback and evaluation to develop the physical prototype. Although, the physical therapist and skier were intrigued by the system, they both feared hip and leg injuries as consequences of knee stabilization. There is opportunity for further development for this solution in tangible user interfaces, the relationships of couplings, sensory textiles, and testing different gasses and liquids used to inflate the bags and how they react to different environments. Although, the knee brace offers some injury concerns to the legs and hips, I believe it offers enough promise to improve short and long-term knee health.
I am encouraged by the efforts made throughout the process. While developing the project I was able to readily modify my approach and understand the relationships, couplings, correspondences, and general ontology involved to create the embodied interaction of the users, prototype, and the network of systems that interact together with the environment the user puts them into.
The principal design goal is to create an embodied experience where the intelligent knee brace and user react compatibly to the movement and inertia the skier experiences to improve knee health and comfort.
1. Automatic fitting process for beginners
2. Three-axis accelerometer and orientation sensors that receive and relay datato a wireless charged battery powered module. The module instantly records andanalyzes the data and signals to an actuator for specific chamber support whereit is needed
3. Digital adjustments using physical dials and slides, a joystick on the ski pole, or an app on a personal device that adjust pressures and range of motion in the brace.
4. Ability for users/trainers/medical professionals to access data and adjust the device in real-time to allow for more or less support, torque, and flexibility.
As a novice skier with previous knee injuries, I want to try skiing, but knee sleeves are not supportive enough and braces feel clunky and do not fit me well.
As a professional skier rehabbing an ACL tear, I need to get back to the slopes as soon as possible without further damage to my knee.
As a physical therapist, I need to make smart adjustments to my patients’ training and regiments for quicker returns to full health.
As someone who has had an ACL tear and lives in the United States, I need a cheaper option than surgery to get back to my favorite hobby.
As someone with chronic knee pain, I love skiing, but I hate trying to adjust my knee brace under my snow gear.
| User Action | System Action | User or System Action Graphic (if appropriate) |
|---|---|---|
| Powers on system | Brace powers on and offers to conform to knee then gives customization guidance |  |
| User double taps joystick | The module recognizes that the user wants to make an adjustment and awaits further instruction |  |
| User accidentally bumps joystick once | Nothing Happens |  |
| User goes down moguls | Brace reacts to each impact and reduces weight and stress to the knee |  |
| User uses thumb-stick to loosen the support on the sides of the knee | Brace alters the side stabilizers to give more flexibility to the knee support |  |
| User makes any adjustment using the thumb-stick | The thumbstick vibrates twice to confirm adjustment | N/A |
| User lands a hard jump | The brace automatically supports the knee via liquid springs and responsive systems | |
| Trainer uses app to modify the system to improve muscle growth | The brace allows for more degree of bend and gives less support |  |
| User clicks upload icon on brace module | Data is synced to chosen devices |  |
| User adjusts outside slide up | The brace applies pressure to the MCL and LCL side stabilizer systems |  |
| User manipulates thumbstick to cycle through components of knee brace and selects a specific component for modification | Each component vibrates once when selected to notify user of what component is waiting to be adjusted | N/A |
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My development efforts included literary and scientific research, professional interviews, creation of personas, and the construction of a theoretical physical prototype. In the end, each step had overlapping impact on the other. I asked for analysis of my prototype from a Physical Therapist and a former professional skier(now ski-patrolman). Their feedback helped me to understand the benefits of knee braces and how they often lead to further injury. I was able to use their input for inspiration for the personas. The personas allowed me to empathize with potential users and how it might be difficult to interact with a knee brace that is under layers of warm clothing.
Creating these personas encouraged me to consider a diversity of users who might utilize this product. This put myself in the place of users with various ailments, professions, and experiences. Each user had different goals, frustrations, and motivations that developed mental models of how users could utilize this system. The biggest takeaway from this was the frustration of removing warm layers to adjust the brace which led to the addition of the thumbstick. I intentionally included someone in the medical field who’s concern is with athletes that have various knee issues. The ability to collect and analyze the data would allow medical professionals to monitor the stress that the skiers put their knees through and adjust the brace for each unique individual. This would allow the medical professionals to make immediate deviations to the regiments they assign the skiers to.
This was perhaps the most rewarding part of my research. I reached out to a physical therapist of mine and an old acquaintance who was a professional skier and is now on a ski-patrol in New Zealand. They offered professional critiques of my original prototype for modification. They also gave encouragement that my mental model was in the right direction. The physical therapist immediately criticized the thought that this could help prevent ACL injuries due to the “3D tear” that occurs to ACLs. He also said that falls while wearing knee braces tend to create chain reactions that lead to broken legs or femurs and can lead to serious hip issues. Although the brace might lead to issues elsewhere, he did say that this could be marketed to the population of users who never had their ACL tears fixed and that it could give a significant increase in quality of life to that population and those with MCL/LCL issues or other chronic knee issues. This input inspired me to create Kadu’s persona. Furthermore, he was intrigued by the thought of instant data collection and modifiability by the medical professionals or users. He believed that these systems could help to understand or reduce compounded weight stress, torque, or fractures.
The Professional Skier/Ski-Patroller also was critical of the ability to reduce ACL injuries. In concordance with the physical therapist, he believed he developed hip issues after wearing knee braces due to overcompensation while rehabbing knee injuries. He noted that he has seen many broken legs due to the added stress the bones endure from falls. Nonetheless, he believes previous teammates and friends would have utilized a brace like this. On his ski-patrol, they use air casts to stabilize broken legs and he was impressed with the concept and modifiability of the prototype. The fact that they use air-casts on the mountain caused me to reconsider switching to a low-viscous liquid, as was previously used in early versions of the prototype.
The original scope for this project was to limit injuries for alpine skiing enthusiasts. Upon reflection, further research, and inspiration of my own knee issues, I was able to focus my scope of my domain to knee related issues. I finally landed on providing an experience where the user could have an embodied interaction where their actions and the knee brace entangled together to reduce inter-actions of knee discomfort and allowed for a more efficient flow. Further inspiration came from the education I received during physical therapy about how my knee pain stems from faulty coupling of bone, tendons, and muscles in my body. Akanksha’s Persona was loosely based on myself and how an early misdiagnosis when I was 14 led me to believe lifelong knee pain was something I would have to live with.
I started blending different knee braces and smart textiles, then with the suggestion of an orientation sensor and 3-axis accelerometer(which led me to discover actuators), it helped me to focus on each objects role. These objects then became things that coupled or corresponded with other things to create an intelligent knee brace that became embodied or an entanglement with the user. This eventually morphed into the role of the medical professional and created an even larger constellation of opportunity where the medical professional could observe and interact in real-time to the actions of the skier and the reactions of the brace or vice versa.
Development of the interaction model pushed me to stop thinking about what the prototype could do, and instead focus on the levels of correspondences that were necessary to achieve these abilities. Dasein, correspondence, and entanglement came to mind as the user(s) corresponds with the system and environment.
The biggest constraints came with development of the ideation of the design. I delved into ski injuries, safety equipment, biology, rehabilitation, forces incurred on the knee, intelligent products, coupling in those products, and how I could take these different ideas and fit them into one system. It was overwhelming and my time was limited. Over and over again, I was reminded of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to user error. In this case, I referenced it to me as a developer, instead of the user.
The project led to a promising solution, for those in need of better knee health, that could be adapted for any high-impact sport or activity. The primary concern is that I have zero medical expertise. I based my solution off previous work and technology that is being used now.
For this to be further developed, a massive amount of medical expertise and oversight would be necessary. Technology would need to be tested on what to fill the support chambers with. I am curious as to what the results would be when researching different types of gases or liquids. Would an accelerometer help to lessen bone breaks if it recognizes a sudden fall and be able to simultaneously lessen the pressure? Could we modify the thumbstick to strap around the index finger for snowboarder implementation or those who do not utilize poles? Could the system be enhanced so that the user could gesture against your clothing like a Tracker Jacket(an intelligent jacket made of material you manipulate with gestures), or would this cause the user to lose balance and create inter-action? How would the module look and what kind of UI and IA would be incorporated?